NCGA Unveils Proposal for 2012 Farm Bill

The National Corn Growers Association today unveiled the Agriculture Disaster Assistance Program, a commodity title proposal for the 2012 farm bill that will modify and replace the existing Average Crop Revenue Election Program and provide a more effective and responsive safety net for growers.

"Responding to a charge by our voting delegates to investigate transitioning direct payments into programs that allow producers the ability to mitigate risk, our grower-led Public Policy Action Team developed a crop-specific, revenue-based risk management tool that provides a safety net when growers are facing a loss," says NCGA President Bart Schott. "We are focusing on simplification and faster delivery of assistance when it is needed."

ADAP builds on the existing structure of ACRE and is designed to address the need for simplification and elimination of overlapping coverage with individual crop insurance, NCGA reports. Changes include the use of harvest prices and crop reporting districts to set the crop revenue guarantee and would establish a guarantee based on the five-year Olympic average of revenue.

Payments would be limited to 10% of the guarantee, based on planted acres and adjusted to a farm’s yield, NCGA says. Payments would cover lost revenue between 85% to 95% of the guarantee. Marketing loan rates would be restored to standard levels, rather than being reduced by 30% in ACRE.

"While today’s farm bill provides critical assistance to farmers when they face a significant loss, growers also need a program that can efficiently address gaps in protection that cannot be addressed by federal crop insurance alone," Schott says. "ADAP will assist in streamlining those goals and ensure farmers are better protected when revenue is lost due to crop disease, volatile commodity markets and adverse weather across multiple years."